


Dust and Grime

by Elyssian



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - His Dark Materials Fusion, I only watched up to the first few episodes of season 4 bear with me, Other, Platonic or not, squint for what you want and take it, takes place in s2/3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:20:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23652982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elyssian/pseuds/Elyssian
Summary: A shadow named Raven, insecurity with wings, and loyalty named Cinnamon. Or, Emma inquires into the nature and permanence of Daemons without meaning to. [A His Dark Materials/The Golden Compass AU]
Relationships: Captain Hook | Killian Jones & Emma Swan, Captain Hook | Killian Jones & Evil Queen | Regina Mills, Evil Queen | Regina Mills & Emma Swan, Regina Mills | Evil Queen & Emma Swan & Captain Hook | Killian Jones
Kudos: 2





	Dust and Grime

**1: The Queen**

“Raven isn't a raven.”

Regina spares a short glance at her, but she looks back down to the little gem before gracing her with a snort.

“How smart of you to realise Miss Swan.”

The words lack their usual bite, and Emma tries hard not to make a jab at that. They're both tired but Regina's the one giving away her life here. Regina's doing all the saving that matters here.

“Raven- what _is_ Raven?”

The black little thing pokes it's head out of Regina's coat to peer at Emma with beady eyes. Emma's never seen the whole of him before. Cinnamon shifts against Emma's leg, half flapping his wings.

“Don't tell us he's a lizard cuz we know that's bullshit.”

The trumpeter swan barks out, trying, Emma knows, to cover up the uneasy silence in the tunnel.

Regina lets out a tired sigh that's so unlike her, Emma considers back-pedalling before her entire image of Regina goes to the wind.

“Hey, you know what, that was probably pretty damn rude for me to-”

“It doesn't matter Miss Swan.”

Regina slouches forward with a level of finality that has Emma and Cinnamon squirming.

“I'm about to die so I might as well tell you.”

Raven half slides, half scuttles out and Emma gapes because _what the fuck that's not-_

“How have you been keeping him in your clothes?”

Regina's lips quiver in disbelief.

“That's what you want to ask?”

Emma answers straight and flatly.

“Yep. I'm not dumb enough to miss a chimaera when I see so I don't see the point of asking about that.”

Curiosity. Surprise. Short flickers of emotion on her face. A bit of strength comes back to Regina and Emma hears it in her voice.

“Not even going ask what's mixed into him?”

“Bat, snake and probably a horned lizard.”

Regina laughs at her.

“All correct Miss Swan. And here I feared that I would be leaving my son with a dumb blonde.”

Emma snorts, half imagining the cold, dreariness fading away.

“You shouldn't judge people by their appearance, your highness.”

Then Emma hears the low rumbling, and identifies it as the chimaera she's never heard speak before.

“I like your spunk girl. Too bad we're about to die. You would have a good friend for Regina.”

Regina stills and they go back to noticing that Storybrooke was about to be destroyed.

“So Regina's the face-value bitch and you're the subtle bitch huh?”

Emma hissed.

“Cinnamon!”

Regina fights down the smile with depressing thoughts of her demise.

* * *

**2: Raven**

It helped to keep Raven hidden, Regina reasoned.

They would think her a monster, a wraith, a witch. They would _fear_ her.

Better Regina than Raven, because after Daniel, after Mother's painful lessons, Raven was the only thing left she could love. (She had been so proud when mother look at her with disgust.)

( _“You are ashamed.” Raven hissed._

_“I'm not ashamed of you.”_

_“You are ashamed of yourself.”_

_Regina had no counter for that.)_

* * *

**3: The Captain**

“Where do you hide her?”

It had been David who asked, because at the forest Mary Margaret had learnt (with regret) the value of secrecy and at the beanstalk, Emma hadn't enough space in her mind to ask. (Maybe Mulan and Aurora had asked, but if they did Emma hadn't heard.)

“Nowhere.”

Killian left it at that and stalked back to the helm.

They hadn't asked again on the journey and then on the trek but then they burst into Pan's encampment and things turned _ugly._

Pan had a mouse in his hand.

It was Hope, Henry's Hope who loved trying to shift into animals that didn't exist but failed and shifted into a dog when Henry was sad or frustrated and when Henry was in trouble Hope would shift into something small so she could hide-

“Do you know that if I kill someone's daemon in Neverland, they don't die? Well, that's because I will it so but don't you lot think that's interesting?”

Emma and Regina are too wired, zeroed in on Hope squirming in Pan's hand. Mary Margaret and David are too preoccupied watching Emma's back but Mary Margaret's Hymn, tiny little songbird who sure as hell didn't talk like a tiny little songbird, sounded out for them.

“You're lying.”

He fretted and Emma's Cinnamon eyed Pan's daemon. A crocodile. _The_ crocodile, Emma realised.

“If you're talking about old Piper here, I didn't care to repeat that particular painful procedure on myself. Well, it looked painful. You were screaming quite nicely dear Captain.”

Killian took a step back and the jarring movement (Captain Hook? The prideful, idiot pirate stuffed with bravado _stepped back_?) forced Emma away from her thoughts and into reality. What had Pan said?

“Did he tell you? Of course, he didn't.”

“Pan stop.”

Killian's voice had been quiet. Emma barely heard. But she did, and then she noticed that everything else was quiet too. The leaves didn't rustle. The branches didn't creak. The wind didn't whistle. And worst of all _the Lost Boys didn't breathe._

“The bird was troublesome though. But that's what birds are I suppose. I had to break her wings so she wouldn't try to escape- your screams were harmonised, did you notice? Anyways-”

“Stop it.”

“-anyways she made quite a pathetic amount of pleading before I tossed her over the cliff.”

Pan's grin had lost all signs of playfulness now. He was casually dangling Hope over the crocodile but it looked disinterested and Emma had lost interest too because Pan's voice was like grating Siberia down her spine and they were half watching him and a paling Killian.

“Don't take me away from Killian, and all that. The desperation was quite a lovely-”

“ _Peter.”_

Kilian swayed backwards.

“ _Please stop.”_

Pan's grin turned feral.

“That is what you said before I killed her, wasn't it?”

Then Pan's grin went feral and the air turned black, black with the sudden hostility the Lost Boys were radiating, and unconsciously Emma took a step back to Killian.

“Would you like to know something else I discovered? The bodies here don't rot.”

There's flash and then Pan's gone, right past them and dropping a furl of feathers into Killians arms.

Killian _screams_ and all hell breaks loose.

* * *

**4: Aife**

Her name was Aife and when he was fourteen, she settled late into an Gull.

Why was her name Aife? Killian didn't know. His dad chose that name. Liam had named his Scáthach, for warriors well taught and ghosts well-rested.

His mother had considered it to be unlucky, but she considered the attachment to Liam a good sign. But his father, his bastard father Killian had the misfortune to idolise, had given his very prompt opinion once asked and left it at that.

 _Destined to be screwed by the hero,_ he said. _Screwed and nothing more._

Three hundred years later and chained in a giant's lair, Killian though that description had made sense.

* * *

**5: Pirate Magic**

Regina had been fine with her chimaera at first. But then, the world was technically ending.

It got worse when they came back from the mines to announce the not-end-of-the-world (and that they would not be sticking around to celebrate because those fuckers had taken Henry) and someone, some damn bastard who hung on to a grudge, had hissed on the exposed Raven.

_“A chimaera.”_

Half the crowd backed away and the whispers started. _(Evil, insane, unhinged, wrong, mistake-)_

Emma saw her stiffen and she held out a hand but the cold shoulder was freezing and it slid off.

Killian hadn't been fine with his daemon, or lack thereof at first.

They guessed he would run for the sea and chased, but hours later, when they found him curled on the beach with a fist pressed to his eyes, they had chosen not to leave the tree and wait.

For about five minutes then Regina had marched across the sand, Emma trailing after because he really looks like he could be alone-

Regina pulled Raven out of her shirt and, when he blearily looked up, dumped him on his lap. (The gull was in front of him, twisted and broken.)

“I could've cried when they first mocked Raven. But I got angry and crushed that peasant's daemon under my heels until it was nothing but dust.”

Regina reached down and grabbed the stunned pirate by his vest.

“So you can either stay here mourning away or you can get angry at Pan for mocking her Jones and rip his crocodile into pieces.”

Five seconds later, Emma had stopped waiting too and dragged them back, away from such openness and batted away her parent's prying.

* * *

**6: A drink**

When the Neverland fiasco (because that was what Emma's life had become, a big whopping fiasco) had died down, Emma spent thirty minutes staring at unpacked boxes and the bare walls of her new apartment. (Staying with parents at this age was kindly put, discomforting.) Henry was with Neal. Mary Margaret and David were enjoying alone time. Ruby was either working or, as the quotation marks in her text implied, screwing Whale.

“Emma this sucks. We're going drinking.”

The good thing about having your soul as a separate entity; it knew exactly what you needed and told you so.

So Emma sauntered into the Rabbit Hole fifteen minutes later, alone, and three hours later Killian had her propped up while Regina searched her pockets for her keys so they could dump her on her couch.

“I switched the cider with the rum.”

Emma giggles and Regina looked at her with something like weariness and amusement.

“We noticed Miss Swan.”

“You're fucking drunk, so shut your trap before you embarrass us!”

Emma had gotten drunk enough to make Cinnamon sway with tipsiness, past Regina's legs and through the opened door.

“Your Cinnamon's a real charmer love. A little help with her legs your highness?”

Killian followed after the teetering swan, half dragging Emma as Regina kept her legs from shooting out in various directions.

When they did release her into the couch, Emma's flailing arms dragged them down with her. Killian, albeit amused, tries to make eye contact with Regina over Emma.

“You know what they say about the constantly stressed. They're either happy drunks or sobbing drunks.”

“They say that?”

Emma chose this moment to surge forward.

“You two should have gotten drunk too! You too are sad! I get sad looking at you.”

Then Emma sunk back into the couch, eyes fading for a moment before she snapped back.

“Cinnamon! Do the thing!”

“Didn't have to tell- yell blonde _we're connected_.”

Regina and Killian humoured the Swans- both actual avian and person- and watched the daemon. Raven skittered out and made a lazy flight around the room out of interest.

Cinnamon sneezed and shifted into a rabbit with a shower of dust.

Killian ad Regina jumped and started checking on Emma.

“Emma, are you-”

“What the bloody hell was that?”

Emma, not in a show of disinterest but merely not understanding their concern, started accusing Cinnamon.

“Cin! Wrong form!”

“I noticed! Give me a moment.”

The rabbit shook and moments later, a large dog was pandering towards the couch.

Emma half lifted the furred mass into the couch and over their laps.

“This is Cinnamon's calming mode.”

She took in their confusion.

“It's a Saint Benard. The rescue dog?”

“I see.”

Regina's eyes flickered over the dog nuzzling into her lap.

“Your daemon is unsettled.”

“He is. It's really useful. When I had to steal stuff Cinnamon could look like something harmless and change when we needed to steal again so no one would remember and when I was homeless he'd shift into something warm and when I was in prison he was a lion or a tiger because I was pregnant and some of them hated me and I didn't know why-”

Emma fisted up her daemon's fur and burst into tears.

Killian, to his credit, showed no discomfort and started rubbing circles into her back. Regina had stilled the way she did when she didn't know what to do. But Raven knew what to do apparently. He glided down and landed on Emma's head, curling till he resembled a DIY Halloween crown before announcing quite flatly,

“Well, welcome to team Fucked Up.”

Emma laughed and they eased.

“Team Fucked Up he said.”

Cinnamon wrapped himself around them tighter, sealing Regina and Killian. Emma remained curled over Cinnamon, oddly still and her daemon, after five minutes of silence, informed them that she was dozing off.

“Why are you unsettled mate?”

Cinnamon snorted.

“It's called adapting to survive buddy. When Emma was in the system I had to alternate between a form that would attract foster families and a form that fend off shitty foster families. When Emma was homeless I had to use something cute by day so we'd get sympathises who'd spare some change and at night I had to change to something that told everyone else around the block not to fuck with us. When she got that bondsman job I didn't shift so often but her job got nasty sometimes.”

The pause filled the room. Killian made an offering to the silence.

“Well, I guess team Fucked Up does suite us.”

Cinnamon barked out a hoarse laugh.

“Well, I've spilt my girl's life story here so spill me yours so I can call it even.”

They stilled and the dog waited. Raven slithered back to Regina and nudged. She hesitated, so Killian found himself spilling his words to the room, to a dog, a chimaera, a queen and a sleeping princess.

He told them he loved his mother and she died when he was five. He told them how he idolised his father and he had abandoned him at eight. He told them how his brother, Liam, had cared for him and he had turned cold in his arms when he was twenty-one. He told them how he had clung to his daemon, Aife, and she'd been wrenched from his grasp when time had been muddled and painful.

Regina surged to stamp out the silence in his wake.

She told them that when Raven first settled into a snake she had been seven and mother had bled her fingers out, had drilled into her that crying was being weak and _if you cry Regina I will make it more painful._ She told them that when Raven had grown a horn and sharp ridges mother had ripped out her lover's heart and fed it to her daemon, a once regal fox, Regina had been eighteen and the screams had frozen her heart. She told them that when she gave up the one person who still loved her, her dead father, for a curse that wasn't worth it, she had been twenty-eight and Raven grew a bat's wings and a bat's claws.

And then Emma, who was never asleep and much more sobered, said her piece quietly.

“I'm sorry.”

Raven flicked his tail at her.

“We all are, idiot.”

* * *

**7: A bit of closure**

Emma awoke to pounding between her ears.

“Ow, fuck.”

The fur cushion on her lap rumbled.

“Told you not to inhale the scotch. At least you left the couch unfolded or you'd be fighting off cramps with that headache.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Emma wondered if moving past Cinnamon for the aspirin would disturb them. Regina had curled up, and her subconscious neatness had somehow kept her bed hair at bay. Killian had sprawled, a nice contrast to Regina. His eternally tousled hair remained as it was, though Emma supposed that was because it wasn't possible for it to get messier.

Emma also noticed that they had all leaned left, which meant she was in Killian's chest and Regina was pressed into her side. No way was she getting out of this without waking the two up. Should she go back to sleep? Raven answered for her by dropping off the ceiling and landing on her eyes.

(They weren't anything yet but hell they'd had time to work on it later.)

(Days later the wicked witch of the west started turning people to monkeys and Emma swore.)


End file.
